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Mark the anniversary of Great March of Return in Gaza with us as we oppose the artwashing of Israeli Apartheid in NYC

On March 27, just days before the one-year anniversary of Gaza’s Great March of Return, Batsheva Dance Company will be performing in NYC as a willing participant in the Israeli government’s Brand Israel public relations campaign that uses art and culture to divert attention from Israel’s violent repression of the Palestinian people, including Israel’s war crimes and crimes against Palestinian protesters in Gaza.

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New York’s elite feast for Israeli apartheid, while Palestinians hunger for freedomOn the afternoon of Sunday, February 3, New York's Carnegie Hall will host an outrageously expensive fundraising brunch for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO), followed by an IPO concert performance. Tickets for the IPO brunch start at $1000. The IPO is no apolitical cultural institution. An official cultural ambassador for Israel, the IPO proudly proclaims that it "represent[s] the State of Israel across the world,” and says that “[T]he goodwill created by these tours…is of enormous value to the State of Israel.” While the IPO performs as part of the Brand Israel PR initiative, Israel systematically deprives Palestinians of their basic rights, whether they live under Israeli military occupation, as unequal citizens in Israel, or as refugees, denied their right of return to their homeland.

As the IPO’s wealthy supporters attend a lavish brunch inside to sustain its whitewashing of Israeli apartheid, we’ll be outside sustaining our love of justice with a small Palestinian brunch and songs for freedom. Our protest responds to the Palestinian civil society call to boycott cultural institutions like the IPO that are complicit in sustaining Israel’s apartheid rule over the Palestinian people. Join us! Signs and brunch will be provided.

Press Release

New York, NY, October 2, 2018 – Palestinian arts and solidarity organizations, along with US Jewish and Israeli groups, have joined theater artists in signing a letter calling on Toronto, New York and Pittsburgh arts organizations not to host Israel’s Gesher Theatre or partner with the Israeli government, citing their involvement in violations of Palestinian rights. Award-winning actors Kathleen Chalfant and Miriam Margolyes, and playwrights Caryl Churchill, Betty Shamieh, Naomi Wallace, and Anne Washburn are among the artists who signed the letter.

Gesher Theatre says their Canadian and US performances were “made possible with the generous support of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” At their opening Toronto performance Saturday night hosted by the Ontario Heritage Trust, supporters of Palestinian rights handed out flyers calling for a boycott of Gesher Theatre, and held aloft a large sign saying “Your Event is Sponsored by the Israeli government. Its Military Killed 150 Unarmed Palestinian Protesters in Gaza This Summer.” In a statement, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in Toronto said, "We protested Gesher Theatre’s opening night in Toronto to show the event for what it really is – an effort by the Israeli government to distract attention away from its violations of Palestinians' rights.”

We are supporters of the arts and social justice, writing to express serious concern about the fact that the Ontario Heritage Trust in Toronto (September 29, 30), the Cherry Orchard Festival in New York (October 3, 4,6 and 7), and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust (October 11-13), will be hosting performances by the Gesher Theatre of Israel, performances that the Gesher Theatre and your own websites say are sponsored by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These performances support the Israeli government in implementing its systematic “Brand Israel” strategy of employing arts and culture to divert attention from the state’s decades of violent colonization, brutal military occupation, and denial of Palestinian refugees’ right of return. In addition, Gesher Theatre itself has been complicit in Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights, as we describe in more detail below. Therefore we call on the Ontario Heritage Trust, the Cherry Orchard Festival and the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust not to host the Gesher Theatre, or partner with the Israeli government.

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As Palestinians mark 70 years of dispossession, Batsheva–The Young Ensemble and the Joyce Theater will be celebrating Israel’s 70th anniversary with “Israel Dance Fest 70,” sponsored by the Office of Cultural Affairs, Consulate General of Israel in New York.

Press Release

December 21, 2017, New York, NY - On Saturday New York human rights advocates celebrated the closure of the showcase Madison Avenue diamond store of Israeli billionaire and settlement-builder Lev Leviev by singing social justice-themed holiday carols for the eleventh consecutive year outside Leviev’s now former store. The closure of Leviev’s signature New York store followed 30 protests since its opening ten years ago, years of condemnations of Leviev’s businesses’ human right records, and a raft of conflicts and controversies involving the businesses in the Leviev Group of Companies.

Protesters outside the former Leviev store on Saturday sang Adalah-NY holiday boycott classics including We Wish Him a Loss of Business, I Made a Little Settlement, O Little Store on Madison, and Diamond Mines.

Press Release

New York, NY, July 24 – An Israeli government-supported theater initiative begins tonight at Lincoln Center, despite a protest letter signed by over 80 artists. The Lincoln Center performances are taking place against a backdrop of heightened Israeli government repression of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation in the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, and revelations that 43 Senators hope to implement a law that could make it a felony for Americans to support similar boycott protests against Israel. Reported plans by Israel’s anti-Palestinian Minister of Culture Miri Regev to travel to New York for the performances underline the importance the hardline Israeli government places on its Lincoln Center partnership.

In the letter to Lincoln Center the artists called for the cancellation of Monday’s performance because it is part of the Israeli government’s Brand Israel public relations strategy and because the Israeli theater groups involved, Ha’Bima and Cameri, have played in and legitimized Israel’s illegal settlements. The signers of the letter to Lincoln Center include winners of numerous theater awards, including four Pulitzers, three Tonys, and nine Obies.